Wine Cellar Wood Choices

Rustic Pine is characterized by its soft creamy color combined with subtle streaks and structurally sound knots. Pine is sought after when a rustic architectural appearance is desired.

Rustic Pine is our best value by price per bottle space because the supply is huge. Pine grows throughout North America and represents a huge quantity of the overall wood produced. Rustic Pine is a grade that includes knots which give a bigger yield and lower cost than a clear grade of wood.

Beautiful unstained, Rustic wine cellar wood lends itself to a variety of stains and finishes to match your home decor. It is particularly suited for weather finishes where we strip down the intergrain matter to approximate the appearance of wood that has been aged outside for decades. Rustic Pine absorbs and retains all types of finishes extremely well. It will become more pronounced in the dark stained woods. When lacquer is added, the grain pattern continues to get magnified.

Premium Redwood Unstained

Premium Redwood is the next step up in price. Unlike Rustic Pine the Premium Redwood is clear, meaning it has no knots. It includes wood from all part of the log which varies from white to pink to red and reddish brown. Some prefer Premium Redwood for the variety of colors. Click here to see variations in color.

WhyRedwood? Redwood grows exclusively in California from the northern tip to half way down the coast in a band averaging 30 miles wide along the Pacific Coast. With or without stain, redwood is well-suited to the humid, cool conditions of a wine cellar, and endures extremely well in these conditions.

All of our redwood is purchased under the guidelines of SFI, Sustainable Forestry Initiative. SFI Certification provides customers with assurance that the redwood YOU purchase from Wine Cellar Innovations has been harvested in an environmentally sound manner.

Clear All Heart Redwood Unstained

Clear Allheart Redwood is the most expensive part of the redwood tree. It comes exclusively from the center of the log and is consistently in the reddish hues. Of all North American woods it is the most resistant to moisture, mildew and rot. For those reasons it was used in subterranean wine cellars before mechanically climate controlled wine cellars were invented.

WhyRedwood? The characteristics of Clear All Heart Redwood include resistance to shrinking, warping, and checking in addition to durability. What does this mean to you? It means that your wood will age beautifully in your wine cellar. Be assured that with your selection of Clear All Heart Redwood, you are making an environmentally sound choice.

All of our redwood is purchased under the guidelines of SFI, Sustainable Forestry Initiative. SFI Certification provides customers with assurance that the redwood YOU purchase from Wine Cellar Innovations has been harvested in an environmentally sound manner.

Grand Mahogany Unstained

Grand Mahogany is a plantation grown hardwood that is extremely attractive. With it's uniform color, it has a few slight variations that go from medium to pale pink. The hardwood has a moderately coarse grain pattern. For the most part, the grain pattern is straight but can be slightly interlocked in some cases. Having a mahogany wine rack in your cellar is a versatile wood that is comparable to sapele and cherry with it's hardness, density, and grain texture. In regards to its durability and stability, you can easily match it up to sapele, hard maple, or cherry wood wine rack examples and find it compares well.

Sapele Unstained

Sapele is a golden to dark reddish brown. Color tends to darken with age. Overall a very uniformly colored wood. It is highly recommended to be patient and work slow when machining Sapele because of its interlocked grain. Working with a beautiful wood like Sapele will yield amazing pieces, but it does have a blunting effect on blades and drill bits. Sapele finishes and glues very well. Heartwood ranges from moderately durable to very durable in regard to decay resistance.

Non-Stock Wood Options

Select Hardwoods

We offer many Select Hardwoods. Which includes African Sapele, Black Walnut, Red Oak, White Oak, White Maple, Cherry, Bloodwood and Knotty Alder to name a few. Popular selections can be a cherry wood wine rack, maple wine rack cabinet, or knotty alder wine cellars. Pricing on these woods is done to order and are subject to market fluctuation. You can view many of these woods on our Interactive Swatch Viewer.

Black Walnut

Black Walnut, known for its rich color, is an elegant wood visually and well suited for a custom wine cellar or wine rack application. Unstained, the color includes rich chocolate brown tones that slightly vary from a "nutty" to a "dark brown" hue. If left unstained, the wood will develop a natural sheen over time.

Knotty Alder

Unstained, knotty alder is primarily light brown in color but may vary from a pale yellow to reddish-brown. While the wood often features a variety of different-sized knots, some pieces will have no knots at all. Knotty alder accepts stain well, making it an exceptional hardwood for your one-of-a-kind wine cellar. Lacquer can be added to any stain, or to unstained wood, for a glossy finish. Knotty alder is a very unique wood, and adds a rustic feel to any application. The samples are indicative of the variations in knots and color.

White Oak

White Oak is a light to medium brown, commonly with an olive cast. Nearly white to light brown sapwood is not always sharply demarcated from the heartwood. Grain is straight, with a coarse, uneven texture. Rated as very durable against rot.. Produces good results with hand and machine tools. Responds well to Glues, stains, and finishes.

Combine two different wood types to create a unique two color wood wine cellar.

The Classic Question…What is the best wood for wine cellar designs?
When a customer makes the decision to purchase a custom wine cellar, they have to select a wood to build it in. There is a wide variation in woods and personal preferences are equally varied. We offer a broad spectrum of woods in a variety of colors, grain patterns, and finishes to accommodate our customers' tastes, needs and budget.

We have selected four quality woods that we purchase in quantity and pass the saving onto you. Featured at the top of this page are wine cellars in each wood that link to more detailed descriptions. Redwood wine racks are a delight to work with. You have the heart of the wood, Clear All-Heart Redwood, and then Premium Redwood which has an array of colors. Grand Mahogany wine racks have a beautiful durability while selecting Pine for your wine cellar gives you great affordability. There is a second category of Non-standard, which is Your Choice of Wood, because we can work in any wood that is commercially available.